Last night as the 8:00 hour for #NYEDChat neared, a huge band of positivity champions rallied for a well-advertised Twitter chat. Voices were predicted to rise as high in the skies as the New York City skyscrapers. All were primed and ready to let positivity prevail, dissipating any notion
that negativity exists in the world (if only for one hour) and so the dream unfolded. What transpired was a feat of unparallelled magnitude in #NYEDChat history.
Nineteen positivity champions were scheduled to join the #NYEDChat conversation. Within a week's time, our usual moderating team (Bill Brennan, Victoria Day, Blanca Duarte, Dan McCabe, Lisa Meade, Starr Sackstein, Dennis Schug, Tony Sinanis, and me) plus a special band of #EduFriends (Bobby Dodd, Sean Gaillard, Reed Gillespie, Phil Griffin, Neil Gupta, Jon Harper, Jennifer Hogan, Eoin Lenihan, Craig Vroom, Jennifer Williams) prepared a celebratory event that was sure to rock the Twittersphere. With the true spirit of connected colleagues, the positivity team engaged in backchannel conversations and twitter messages leading up to last night's chat. #vachat and #OHedchat friends were called in and tweets sent across the world to our German colleague. We were ready.
From the first gif, NYEDChat flowed with positivity and a new sense of camaraderie was established. Positive thoughts were shot out in rapid succession by tweeters from across the states. Both newbie and veteran connected educators and friends chimed in. As the sounds of positivity were shouted loud and clear across the Twittersphere, the news of #NYEDChat trending on Twitter was a front page headline for us.
Like the NYC skyscrapers only 30 miles away, connected colleagues' voices rose high in a collective chorus of positivity while posters and high fives were shared. Many interesting statements, such as those below, flowed from the topic, Positive People Do More.
casehighprinc So thrilled to be a part of this evening!! Rock-star-a-palooza!!!
MrsVandeborne positivity looks like engaged excitement, deeper learning, & real/visible progress, collaborative efforts & LOTS of high fives!
ERobbPrincipal #NYEDchat Wow a real convergence of Ed Leaders-- Great to be here!!!
MentorTextCentr Positivity is definitely a good-feeling energy making the workplace filled with a 'positive flow' of ideas/ collaboration.
iChrisLehman positivity often starts by watching and listening to kids at work. They do wonders to raise our spirits.
karenvaites Positivity is often a matter of mind over matter!
smgaillard #NowPlaying What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong #NYEdchat #CelebrateMonday ♫https://t.co/mzNiM5hW5C
rggillespie As educators, we've been entrusted by parents with most precious possession, their children. How can we not be positive?
danieldmccabe Positive people do more because they don't waste their energy complaining, making excuses or pointing fingers. Own it.
Sampling of Positivity Posters:
 |
 |
| MRHS_Principal |
 |
| ShannonMStark |
Sample Call To Action Statements:
- Jennifer Hogan: Call to action: I'm COMPELLED to be a positive force & advocate for educators! Who's with me?!!!
- I'll continue to show #positivity because I'm richly blessed to do the work daily-inspired by & inspiring young people daily.
- I will always be positive, share the love, & hang up posters/images from 2 night's chat around my classroom 2 promote positivity.
- "Awesomeness" is not accidental. We will be awesome on purpose!!!
Positivity poems can be read here.
 |
| Debby Call |
As a band of positivity champs, participants and the team of nineteen joined together to see new possibilities as we celebrated positivity.
 |
| @lauriemeston |
 |
| Two Writing Teachers #sol16 |
